Bob & Mark need your input!!!

The situation: We have started draining our 55 acre lake for the purpose of digging it out. The lake is divided in half by a road with road levy and a 8' culvert you can drive a boat through. The west side is very shallow and only averages about 3.5' deep. This is the side we are going to dig out. We lost the siphon so now it is not draining.

The problem: We have drained about 2'4" of water and guess what? The bottom of the culvert is 10" higher than the bottom of the lake on the west side. We were hoping to drain all of the water down to the east side which is deeper. We have figured out how to drain but the question is the fish????

The bottom of the culvert (pipe) now has only about 5" of water in it.

Will the fish have moved to the east side which is deeper when we had it draining?? Better yet, how many fish can we expect to be trapped in the west side? Stocked with bass, bream, catfish and is about 3 years old with bass up to 5 pounds.

What a mess, help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!